


The only way to teach…

by Banbury



Category: NCIS, Supernatural, The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 15:26:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16349273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banbury/pseuds/Banbury
Summary: You write something and promptly forget about it and then it returns to you with a vengeance. Sometimes it might be frightening, sometimes it might be boring, sometimes it might be educational and other times it became a life changing event...You think somebody should know enough on the topic to post a paper on it. Sometimes it's not a case - two professors posted a paper and got themselves stalkers. Said stalkers appeare to know more on the subject than the researchers themselves, though they somehow couldn't get a grip on the topic without clueless professors. Would they be able to resolve the problem together to everybodies satisfaction?





	The only way to teach…

**Author's Note:**

> My deep gratitude to my beta Nica who not only check all my language faux pa, but discuss with me the ideas that lay beneath it.  
> Huge thank you to my beautiful artist sexycazzy who conjured amazing piece of art for my story.  
> And really big thank you to our very patient mods.

[](http://www.mediafire.com/view/5wzjft1po62v6n2/VbCpxqL.jpg/file)

 

“Example isn’t another way to teach, it is the only way to teach”.  
Albert Einstein

#1

A harsh bout of bitter sea wind broke his concentration. He shivered a little and got up from the grass. He wasn't sure how he could have such a strong feeling of open ocean space on the lake shore in Chicago. He missed the boundless expanse and the sense of freedom he always experienced while on the big water, though lately the feeling became less prominent.

#2

He sat hunched over his papers in student’s cafeteria. He preferred it here, it felt quite soothing despite all the noise and constant moving (as if it was all right with the world), and he liked to work here feeling almost invisible at his favorite table tucked between two windows in the far corner of the room.

It didn’t work for Blair though. Professor Sandburg was too well liked and a bit peacocky to blend into the shadows. Every time he showed up there it took him at least half an hour to just move from the entrance to their table with all the greetings, questions, papers that needed to be urgently revised and so on. 

He looked at the clock and frowned. Blair assured him he would be there in half an hour but he was fifteen minutes late by now. Not that he was really worried – Blair wasn’t all that punctual to begin with, but he always let him know if he were to be late.

“… and I need ice-cream now, a whole lotta chocolate ice-cream… No! Vanilla and chocolate… No! caramel and…” The tired hoarse voice trailed thoughtfully and another voice, deeper though sounding younger, huffed.

“Dunno how can you eat sweets after it… I need meat… lotsa and lotsa meat… but we have to hurry before all these hungry mindfuckers eat this place to the ground”.

“Yeah…” 

He realized these people were right outside the window to his left and they weren’t from around here.  
Usually he didn’t pay particular attention to people’s voices, just the intention behind it. These voices sounded quite different from the ordinary students’ chatter. They sounded mature and strangely mother-of-factly as if the meaning behind it was meaningful, not nonsensical blabber.

He straightened and turned his head towards the window. It was both his usual paranoia thanks to the military background and pure curiosity. He couldn’t see anybody different or at least the owners of the voices didn’t differ much from the ordinary student’s body. He sighed and returned to his papers.

#3

“Sorry, sorry…” Blair plopped on a free chair another fifteen minutes later and dropped a token of excuse in the form of a fresh cup of coffee next to the empty ones. “Didn’t mean to be that long…”

“Nah, don’t worry, I’m not in a hurry and … “

“…but I had such a strange conversation.” Blair looked at him with a puzzled frown.

“… and… What conversation?” He looked at Blair intently; he felt that the younger man was a bit unsettled. 

“Umh… There was a student… somehow, I don’t think he was from around here, maybe from California – Berkley or Stanford, not sure…, but definitely a student, you know, there’s something about them … anyhow, he cornered me outside the library – you know literary cornered – he’s huge, at least two heads up and really huge! – and I didn’t understand what it was he wanted from me, he talked about the paper on Watchmen… do you remember? The one we thought we should’ve turned in later, then we decided we haven’t put much thought into it and thought we needed …” Blair looked at him with expectation.

“Sure, though I still think that all our examples were too far-fetched. The idea wasn’t bad and it had its historical value, but wasn’t relevant in the modern society. I am still quite sure that all the so-called manifestations in the modern society are nothing more than pure perceptiveness by the certain type of people and usually these people are those who have to deal with danger…

“I know, Jethro, I know, but then you told me yourself about those people…”

“No, Blair, that was just theorizing on my part, I never really encounter anybody with any heightened senses, just heard rumors and not even really rumors, just…” The former sniper shook his head. The topic was a bit of a sore subject for him. There were a couple of times when he could swear one or two of his fellow soldiers demonstrated unusual perceptiveness bordering on something like magical ability to feel the danger in the air, but it got them killed. And Gibbs didn’t want to open that particular can of worms again.

He looked at Blair and smiled. Who would have thought that two such different people could become friends? They had met at a conference at Annapolis and had a bit of a quarrel while taking part in the debates on some ancient military traditions vs. modern beliefs or something like that. Gibbs was a firm believer that no one civilian, however educated in any military topic, could understand military mindset in its fullest and still somehow Blair did understand his reasoning, thought it through and came up with the arguments that even Gibbs himself had to recognize as valuable.

They parted their way, but Gibbs couldn’t stop thinking of some of these reasons, he went and read all the papers published by Dr. Sandburg, and then he contacted him and suggested to collaborate on an article on the topic of their discussion. As historians, they had a unique perspective and points of view – former anthropologist and advocate for peace and human cooperation who found some value in military mindset of one Jethro Gibbs and a marine and former sniper who realized he had to explain to the world that drive to serve and protect, which was not really understood by ordinary people, and found an unlikely supporter in the young antimilitarist anthropologist…

They finished one article and sometime later found themselves in the midst of writing another one and then one more… They became friends who argued a lot and still held each other’s opinion high. Blair showed him once his unfinished doctoral dissertation on Watchmen that he had abandoned when he had decided to change his field of study. One of the reasons was that during his investigations he met a lot of military people and they fascinated him to the point he wanted to understand them.

Sandburg still held the subject close to his heart and wanted to return to it, but he was unable to find any living Watchman to study and confirm his ideas, thus…

Gibbs was intrigued by the idea. And he told Blair about people with similar abilities he knew once. They really should have put more thought into the subject before sending it to be published in the collection of military related articles. It went unnoticed. And they were thankful for it. They could put it aside for some time and return to it later.

“What did that guy want from you?” Gibbs turned to Blair to find him immersed in his own unfinished writings.

“What?... Why do you have to be that old-fashioned? You need to clarify your point here, it sounds a bit… What did you ask?”

“What did that guy want from you?” 

“Want from me?” Blair blinked at him owlishly. “Oh! I don’t know. He said something rather incoherent like… uhm… you can’t write about something you don’t understand and don’t give a shit about… something like that.” Blair frowned. “He sounded sort of sad about something or maybe angry. And then someone said something – I didn’t really hear who and what – and he … just disappeared.”

They looked at each other puzzled and then Blair startled. “Here he is… I think.”

Gibbs looked out the window surreptitiously. The weather was gorgeous and there were a lot of students meander along, no one looked particularly suspicious. “Whe…?” And then he realized he was looking at the suspect all along but didn’t acknowledge it – although the guy was really huge and quite a bit intimidating if you knew where to look; he sat on the grass by the tree hunched over the books and looked harmless enough in his washed-out T-shirt and jeans with holes on his knees. His uncut floppy hair obscured the face and Gibbs wasn’t sure whether the guy was looking at them or at the book.  
“You think it’s him?”

Blair shrugged. “I really didn’t have time to look very close, but he seems to be… You know, just the feeling…”

Gibbs nodded and closed his eyes to concentrate and push his inner sniper closer to the surface. He slowly surveyed the yard between the café and the library, but didn’t see anyone stand out in the usual crowd. He concentrated on the young man who sat under the tree quiet and unmoving, but couldn’t read anything from him.

Gibbs checked the café, maybe they weren’t the object of the unwanted attention, maybe they were a mere distraction, and then returned to his earlier subject but the young man wasn’t where he left him. That was unnerving. 

Gibbs was the first to admit that while he still kept his sniper and fighting skills up to date his ability to work the perimeter was a bit rusty, he didn’t have to be in the state of constant vigilance for a number of years, and he felt it now quite painfully.

The older man turned to his friend and began to gather his papers, unhurriedly but efficiently. Blair was a bright young man, so he didn’t ask questions or interfered with Gibbs’s actions. He waited.  
“We are going to my office and doing it…”

“Carefully and unsuspicious.”

“Yes, carefully and unsuspicious”. They nodded to each other and went outside.

#4

“Doctor Sandburg?”

They stopped. They were practically by the door to his office, Gibbs needed to be inside to regroup and try to make heads and tails of the situation, but he wasn’t worried much, mostly puzzled; and he didn’t feel any threat from that group of students, so he just nodded and settled against the wall waiting for Blair to wave him forward.

Gibbs liked to observe people interactions. It filled some innate curiosity within him. He wasn’t doing it like Blair – analyzing with an eye of a born anthropologist, - he liked to watch various types of bond, however brief it was, recognize the body language; he knew how to read it and it always added new colors to the words that could be overheard around.

Gibbs looked at Blair, who was surrounded by a group of excited students. He smirked. Somehow all of Blair’s students were eternally bouncing and enthusiastic fellas, and his own were short-spoken, focused and deadly sarcastic. Gibbs shook his head and dialed his assistant Kate to check if that stuttering and sweating technician named McSomething vacated his cabinet where he tried to install new software on his computer. 

“Professor Gibbs?”

Gibbs turned reluctantly towards the approaching stranger. The man was tall and powerfully built with attentive eyes and unmistakably military posture. Gibbs knew that type well but there was something uncharacteristically human in his style – he didn’t rush into the diatribe about Gibbs’s duty as a former military and a prominent specialist in the military history and modern political sciences to support strength and necessities of the modern army yadda yadda yadda… The man patiently waited to be acknowledged by Gibbs. 

“Hey, Jethro, do you know what these beautiful idiots want to do for the semester science project?” Blair skidded excitedly to stop before them and nearly hit the mysterious man. “Sorry, did I interrupt you?”  
“Doctor Sandburg.” The stranger inclined his head towards the smaller man.

Gibbs felt his curiosity picked. He didn’t feel threatened by this person though he could tell that the man was polite just out of common curtsey. His eyes were cold and watched both professors with deeply hidden resentment.

“Can we help you?” Blair felt it and eyed him worriedly.

“I hope so.” The man’s voice was deep, authoritative but pleasant nonetheless. He gestured towards Gibbs’ office and waited for them. Gibbs mentally revised all the places he could’ve hidden his spare weapon, briefly glanced at Blair trying to convey through the eyes to be on guard, and opened the door.  
At first he didn’t register what he saw and then it was a bit too late. He, Blair, and the stranger were inside, the door was locked and there were three more people in the room. Strangely enough neither Jethro, nor Blair was really afraid, they stood silently looking at the new people and waiting for something to happen.

These new men were younger, around Blair’s age, tough and buff and …

“Hey, man, maybe you’ll tell me now what did you mean?” Blair looked at the younger of the three and the biggest one of all. “You see, Jeth, here is the one who cornered me.” And Gibbs saw the same young man who was under the tree – he was really big but not intimidating. At least for now.

The intruder looked at them hard and then turned impatiently to the man standing by the closed door. “Jim.”

“It’s okay, kid, relax.”

So, now they knew his name. 

Gibbs turned to this Jim questioningly. 

“I’m afraid it might be a long conversation and we need some help before we start.” Jim crossed the room and crouched before another younger man. Gibbs took a closer look at them.

The youngest one looked like an ordinary student on a scholarship with his floppy dark hair, smiling eyes, and clean but utilitarian clothes. Right now his eyes were not smiling but filled with worry and exhaustion, and even deep tan couldn’t hide his paleness.

The other two were of a more average height, though also pale and exhausted. Their hair was on a fairer side and their eyes were vivid green. The older of the two had blood on his T-shirt and a thick bandage on his left arm.

“How did you get here?” Gibbs was done with the silence and mystery, but Jim raised his finger in the universal gesture of silence and murmured: 

“There is someone outside the door, female wearing the scent of a rose and bergamot…”

Blair opened his mouth, but Gibbs shook his head before Blair could utter a single sound.

“Professor Gibbs! Jethro!? It’s Kate…” She might’ve turned away from the door because the sound became a bit muffled. “He’s not there, Tim. I’ll contact him as soon as I can and let you know. What did you want me to pass on to him?”

The words became even more unrecognizable but all four men suddenly snickered. 

“He wanted to tell you that he didn’t understand your system of storing information on the hard drive and couldn’t link the new system with the older one.”

“Damn it, I don’t have any information on the hard drive…” Gibbs cursed and then stared at them. “How did you do that?” He really didn’t want to think what he thought just now but there was no other explanation.

“I think you know.” Jim already turned his attention to three other men and began to take off bandages murmuring something so low that Gibbs and Blair couldn’t make it out. “We need clean water, new bandages and something for the pain, preferably old-fashioned.” Jim spoke as a man used to command and be obeyed. Gibbs decided to indulge him; at last he had it all on hand due to old habits.

“And still?”

“Can’t you wait?” The man who has been silent all that time shot him an angry green glare. “We need something to eat, at least some soup for Tony, he needs energy after the peak.”

Jethro and Blair exchanged startled stares. It didn’t look like your typical hostage situation; they couldn’t find the name for it all.  
“I can go to a café. There’s one quite close and they have soup I think.”

«Stupid much?» The angry young man shot Blair quite unamused glance. «He needs something homemade, plain but filling with little to no spices and herbs. I just…» He muttered something under his nose and exchanged sour glances with the other green eyed intruder.

#5

Gibbs retreated to his desk and watched others surreptitiously pretending to look through the drawers. He was pretty sure he had the correct idea of what it was all about and was amazed how different it all looked this up close and personal. 

He calculated quite carefully the dim lightning in the room, earplugs all of them were wearing at the moment (thought due to the occasional winces at the loud noises from outside, it didn’t work well), voices they lowered every time talking to each other… It was all fascinating to watch and Gibbs caught himself putting together quick notes for further observation, as he was used to not trusting his computer to save it all the way he himself would prefer to.

There was sudden silence and professor looked up from his place. Five sets of eyes watched him with some undecipherable expression.

“Interesting observations…” volunteered one of the younger guests, “though not too accurate.”

“You can read my penmanship upside down? … some seriously good eyes.”

“Nae”, volunteered the youngster. “My father’s chicken scrawl was way worse and I had to learn to read not only upside down but backwards as well.”

“Hmm. And what am I not accurate about?” Gibbs wasn’t offended, just curious.

“You have to watch closer.”

“Do you want me to?” Gibbs sensed some change in the atmosphere. There wasn’t so much hostility towards him and Blair as even half an hour earlier anymore. Their visitors had thoughtful air around them now as if they’ve seen or understood something they hadn’t thought of before the meeting.

“Would you let me?”

The older one, Jim, glanced towards his comrades searchingly, turned towards Gibbs and sighed.

“You didn’t really see something like this that close and vivid before? I was sure you might’ve known people like us with you being an active military…”

“Not anymore.”

“That’s not the case.”

“I… Yes. I’ve heard rumors, but… Maybe… Maybe I knew somebody back then but didn’t know about them, not actually. Blair read through some recent research as well, not only historical, but…”

“Everything is quite circumstantial.” Blair nodded. “I went to my friends who work in the medical field at some point, but no such luck.” 

The youngest man in the group gestured impatiently to the bookshelf filled with the volumes of various sizes on sensory topics and the like subjects. “You sure seemed to have a lot of experience with people like us and knowledge on the subject in your paper”.

“I just…” Blair bristled, but Gibbs raised his hand to stop him.

“How did you get to read the paper on Watchmen? It was posted only in the special collective works of the conference. We didn’t even present it as a separate topic of discussion.”

Jim exchanged glances with Tony, who still sat in the armchair tiredly waiting to be rebandaged and fed.

“Tony here has a friend, an FBI agent who being a scientist before everything else gets to attend a lot of conferences on different topics. He brought it to us. To Tony, actually.”

“He was the one who had guessed what might’ve been happening to me. And he found that story about Jim.” Tony smiled at his friend and turned to the hosts. “You know, the one from the magazine.”

Blair blinked slowly couple of times as if trying to remember something buried deep down. He jumped up then, rushed to Gibbs’ computer and buried himself in his mail.

“James Ellison.” Jim held out his hand for Gibbs to shake. “Former Captain of the Rangers, lately from the Cascade police precinct.”

“Leroy Jethro Gibbs.”

“I… we know. We’ve read on both of you before trying to contact.”

“Interesting way of making contact.” Gibbs chuckled and turned to the rest of the group.

“Anthony DiNozzo, athlete, detective and federal agent of NCIS.” 

“Former.” Anthony’s subdued tone of voice sounded rather grim and matter-of-factly. “Don’t forget – former.”

Jim made his way to the arm-chair and patted his friend on the shoulder very lightly. “Tony might be the most sensitive case between the four of us. He…” 

The former ranger cut himself off and gestured towards the two remaining members of their merry band of sensitives. “Dean and Sam Winchesters. Pure luck I served with their father at one point and he remembered my sense’s problems when Dean… began to experience some problems.”

“Here it is!” Blair hit the printer button and a couple of seconds later held out the black-and-white page for Gibbs to inspect. The man on the cover of the magazine looked like a younger version of the Cascade police detective. The picture was taken somewhere indescribable and Jim’s look was something between a tribal look and a military disguise, his hair was held by bandana. 

There was a small official picture on the cover as well though it bore only some visible likeness, there was no inner strength or such that Gibbs could feel from the James Ellison The Real.

“That one?” Blair looked at the printed page with some doubt. “I don’t have the actual article. My friend found it in the library while working on his doctorate paper and send it just in case – he told me there was nothing about heightened senses in the article, but circumstances seemed to be appropriate… but I forgot about it, there were some problems at the department, so I…”

“Wow!” Sam chuckled and drove his elbow in Jim’s side. “You looked just like Dad.”

“No! Marines and Rangers are absolutely different kinds of species!” Ellison and Gibbs said it practically in unison. 

#6

Tony coughed and slumped further down in the arm-chair, so all the explanations were put aside at the moment. 

Gibbs looked over the group and sighed. He knew nobody will ask it of him, nobody would even think of it, but he somehow felt responsible for these people already and it made sense to suggest. He began to talk trying not to dwell on possible outcome.

“My house is rather big and it’s on the outskirts of the town, you won’t be disturbed and the sensory input would be minimal.”

Everybody halted for a second and Jim simply nodded, “Thank you.”

 

#7

The house was big indeed. Jim stepped out of the car and took a deep breath. The air smelled different here, not as salty as home, more rural with some spruced undertones and woody dryness.

There were some other houses along the road surrounded by gardens in full bloom, buzzing with multitude of bees and other insects. The city revealed itself by some low rumble, though Jim was sure nor Gibbs neither Blair was able to detect any sound at this kind of distance.

He helped Tony to free himself from the confines of the car and held him by the elbows while he tried to adjust his inner equilibrium to the new kind of input. 

“Bring him to the deck.”

Gibbs breezed by, thrown the door open and disappeared inside. Jim hoped he would be back shortly with the medical supplies and some food. The older man helped his friend to move two steps up and parked him in the rocky chair. Jim hoped that kind of homey approach will bring some semblance of peace to his fragile senses.

He looked over to the car and frowned. Dean and Sam towered over Blair who was taking their bags from the trunk.

“Guys, lay off.” Jim said it under his breath but Winchesters heard it without any problem and stepped aside. The Ranger knew Sam was the biggest mother-hen of their company not only because of his size, but being the last one to come to his full sense potential. Though he was not the one Jim worried the most about. 

He felt strangely drawn to Blair even when the young man felt nothing like Incacha - his former Guide from Chopec tribe. Jim wasn’t sure he’ll ever be able to somehow distinguish his real Guide from any other ordinary people in the so called “Civilization”, he still sensed something off with the young professor.

“Do you want me to be a medic?” Jim’s concentration on their host was broken by Gibbs’ question and he was somehow glad for it. It was not the time to go in the full Enquery mode. Not yet anyway.

#8

Tony was tired. He ceased his senses with an iron grip and was afraid to let go especially because of his recent injury. The memory of his latest spike, “pick” as Jim called it, and Tony saw it as an equalizer sharp picks by his inner eye, still sent shivers down his spine.

He was strangely disappointed when Jim took medical means from Gibbs. Jim’s feather touches and instinctive knowledge of how to treat fellow sensitive made him the ideal one to treat the wound and still Tony knew somehow he’d welcome the rougher contact with the older professor. He was mollified a little seeing worry in Gibbs’ eyes while he hovered by Jim’s side.

“Why his case is the most sensitive one?” Tony jerked into full wakefulness by the question and looked over at Jim. His friend asked silently how deep he wanted to go in his story.

“Just say it.”

He saw momentary flash of gratitude in Gibbs’ eyes, closed his own and let himself be lulled into sleep by his friend’s voice.

#9

“Can we camp outside? For awhile at least?” Sam brought their bag from the car and placed it just outside the door on the deck floor.

Gibbs was distracted from Jim’s words and reluctantly turned on his host mode.

“I’m sure we have enough rooms for each of you.” He felt a bit insulted. “We can convert the library into a common guest room if you need to sleep close to each other.”

“No, no, it’s not that!” Jim glanced at Sam disapprovingly and the youngest member of the group hurried to explain. “We need to find our inner core, sort of … sort of tune our senses and it’s the easiest way to do just sit in the wind, cast senses a bit wild and then gather them slowly one by one into oneself.” He looked at Jim as if he was a teacher darting out tests.

Jim nodded. “It’s good that Sam can latch his senses onto Dean. The other three of us unfortunately have to rely on ourselves.”

“We can put the camp beds here on the deck.” Gibbs looked around and contemplated the lawn around his house. “Or the tent out here.” He tried to look at his fenced yard through the eyes of a stranger – there were miles and miles of manicured grass with couple of bushes and a lone crop of trees on the ravine slope. “Here, we can put the tent here, if you need.” 

“The deck’s fine.” Gibbs nodded to Jim’s words and turned to enter the house. He was somewhat reluctant to leave the young man in the chair and wanted to hear his story…

“Sam, can you help me with the beds?” The host turned to the youngest guest. “I take it you are the…” Gibbs didn’t know how to call him – the lucky one; the less involved into what trouble this group landed themselves, the most recovered… And then he turned to the leader of them with eyes narrowed, “I’ll be back in ten minutes and I expect to hear each and every gory detail of yours… of your illicit affair. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the kidnapping.”

Jim barked short bout of unhappy laughter. “You will.”

Gibbs waited one more minute, but there was nothing added and he disappeared inside the house with the young giant in his stead.

#10

They didn’t have that conversation, either one of them, until after the late dinner and arranging the beds on the deck and finding some clothes for the brothers and putting everybody to sleep.

Gibbs silently turned around the corner after his usual nightly round over his lands and rather sensed than saw the lone figure on the steps. He went there and sat down by his guest.

“Where did you lose your luggage?” It wasn’t the burning question, but Gibbs knew how to question people so they wouldn’t understand his tactic.

“You don’t need to play these games with me”, Gibbs almost heard Jim’s smirk, “I’m military as well.”  
Jethro nodded. “And still – how did you end with no baggage on the run?”

There was a small commotion by the door and Jim smiled. “You’re not very subtle, Professor Sandburg.”  
“I didn’t want to eavesdrop, I just don’t see very well in the dark. And Blair, please.” The young professor settled beside both man and turned expectantly to the Ranger. “So…”

Jim sighed. “It wasn’t one thing. It’s just… it was all at once.”

“But you were solid, you didn’t need to run.” Dean’s voice drifted down from the deck.

“I didn’t. But don’t need to feel guilty over this. I was in your place some time ago, but I knew what it was for what it was and I knew you were a good man.”

Dean mumbled something under his breath and settled again.

“Yes, it wasn’t my affair at first, but they brought this young guy to our precinct, who was clearly hurting. I was informed of him and then sensed something familiar.” Jim looked in the direction of the beds. “I felt something… did you research us, professor?” Blair nodded. 

“You know I spent two years in the Jungles of Peru. That was the place I became whole, long time buried the other half of my soul burst through its shell and I can’t imagine seeing the world without my new abilities now. It comes to you through the pain and struggles and loss and then, when you emerge on the other side you can’t feel about your senses lightly after all this.

“I was lucky. There was a man, local shaman, who discovered me and taught me and then, when he sensed I have a grip on my abilities, he sent me into the world to help others. So I can’t not help Dean here, when I feel his pain as mine, his struggles as mine, his confusion as profound as mine once was.”

Jim inhaled and tightly embraced himself.

“I had to help and the only way to free him was to go on a run. I couldn’t explain to other people what we were, could I? So, we ran. We found Tony first. He’s a military police officer, would you imagine?” Jim smirked and looked fondly towards the deck. “He was bad. He exchanged himself for the kidnapped victim and was taken into the woods and then he was lucky to run from them and not so lucky to be lost.”

All men looked towards the deck and Gibbs shuddered, thinking about wandering through the silent night woods…

“We found a cabin and spent some time there, trying to find equilibrium. I was the most experienced one, but with Incacha being around there it felt so much easier… And then Sam found us. I swear he has the sense of smell better than a dog. It helped us several times.” Jim looked up in the skies and sighed again.

“We tried to talk to some scholars, who study senses, but it was useless. How can we persuade them when we have problems explaining it to ourselves? It’s very difficult to describe to people who… I … close your eyes and inhale deeply and then listen very-very attentively…”

Jim fell silent and Blair and Gibbs did as they were told.

Blair felt a bit strange from the first minute – his head buzzed a little, he felt a bit lightheaded and there was sweet and a bit musky smell he almost tasted on his tongue. And then there was that strange little sound – not quite crystal bell, not quite bee’s buzz, but something in between, almost like the stars were talking very far above…

#11

“Do you hear it?” The whisper sounded too loud and despite it - perfect.

“Yes…”

“Then try to imagine the sound ten times louder.” 

Blair winced and opened his eyes. Stars in the background lovingly embraced Jim’s shadow and young professor envisioned this man as an ancient warrior for a minute. Then Jim sat back in his easy chair and it was Gibbs, who expressed Blair’s thoughts.

“How do you stand it?”

They didn’t see the man’s eyes as he turned away to look at his friends. “We don’t stand it. We go with the flow on the better days and we endure it on the worse ones.”

“And we try not to think of the worst days. When they come we just stay against it.” The voice was not very familiar, though both hosts didn’t get to wonder.

“Hey, Tony. How are you, kid?” Jim must’ve seen the young man in the blackness as he stretched his hand and guided his friend to sit on the ground beside them.

“Seen better days.”

“Why are you up, then?”

There was silence for a while and both Jethro and Blair imagined their guests speaking with their eyes.  
Tony sighed finally. “There’s some strange pressure in the air. Like when you’re flying and the plane goes up and up…”

There was puzzled silence from Jim. 

Blair was curious. “You really can feel the change in the atmosphere?”

Tony nodded nearly invisible. “Yes. It’s… it’s something I do better than the others. That’s why I was so out of it before.” He turned to Jim, “Should I?”

“Go for it.”

Tony stretched and settled on the grass more firmly.

“We were headed up there from Texas. Jim… Actually Sam discovered your paper and was determined to tell you his thoughts on it and we don’t like to leave ours on their own, so we went there.”

“I don’t think Sam would need backup, not really.” Quipped Blair.

“He – not. We do.” Jim huffed disapprovingly. 

“Never mind, Jim.” Tony shifted and continued. “I don’t remember where we were, somewhere hot, flat and feeling deserted. I felt it pretty weighty – this pressure with the feeling of the heavy clouds on the edges of my mind. It felt like it was closing on me, trying to suppress. I didn’t want to, but somehow I told it to the people in the supermarket nevertheless.”

Gibbs felt some unnamed feeling closing in on him, something dark and oppressive and simultaneously it felt right, like he was entitled to feel that way. It built in him to the point of being really uncomfortable and then a warm calloused hand touched his.

“It’s okay.” Tony suddenly appeared right before him. “They didn’t get a chance to beat me up, though they were pretty angry – it was that they had quite a wicked storm just couple days before and there were badly damaged farms around the town, but they were told the weather forecast sounded good and I could understand they didn’t want to be told it was wrong.” Tony sighed. 

“It was that feeling inside my head I couldn’t block out. Sometimes it’s just impossible to separate yourself from what you sense or feel… it’s like it consumes you, sucks you into some kind of void. Jim calls it “peak” – it’s like you stay on the tip of a needle and all you can do not to fall is to dissolve in outside.”

“…or inside.” Jim’s voice broke some sort of trance Gibbs was in and he inhaled the slightly damp night air as if he was thirsty for longer he could remember.

“No, Jim, you dissolve into you outside.” Dean’s voice drifted downstairs and Gibbs nearly jumped with the unexpectedness of it. It sounded like it was an old discussion, well talked out and almost mechanical by now.

Everybody laughed, proving his theory. Gibbs turned towards Tony and tried to see his expression through the darkness.

“You were pretty well out of it.”

“I was.” Tony’s voice sounded closer than before and Jethro shuddered. “I’m not much better right now as well, but your place is good. I can stretch my feelings and it’s not uncomfortable…”

“Speak for yourself.” Dean sounded gruff. “It’s not a bad place, though it’s better in the mountains when there are miles and miles between you and the next neighbor.”

Gibbs and Blair felt like their heads could very well burst open with all this new information and possibilities and chances to learn. They glanced at each other, they couldn’t let this opportunity fall through.

Gibbs stretched his hand and touched Tony’s shoulder. “Would you stay there for awhile…”, but he didn’t get to finish his question as the world suddenly snapped, stretched and rolled in itself and Leroy Jethro Gibbs, former marine sniper, gunnery sergeant and person with very earth-gravitated imagination found himself in the pale blue Jungles before slightly taller and very imposing figure in full traditional Indian gear.

“Welcome home, Guide. It took you quite some time to get there.”


End file.
